MASS EFFECT 2: THE COLLECTORS
by gothik
Summary: Its been two and a half years since the Normandy was destroyed by an unknown vessel, with the death of Commander Cassandra Shepard and 20 other crew members. Now Shepard comes around in a med bay with Mechs shooting at her.


THE COLLECTORS.

PART 2 OF THE CASSANDRA SHEPARD SERIES

Recap:

For nearly a year, Cassandra Shepard and the crew of the Normandy SV1 chased rogue Spectre Saren across the galaxy, the end of which culminated in a battle on the Citadel. The entire Fifth Fleet fought the Reaper Sovereign, saving the Destiny Ascension and the Council, but suffering losses that would take time to rebuild.

As a reward, Humanity was granted a seat on the council, and, Shepard nominated David Anderson over Donnel Udina. Whilst under orders to hunt down the last of the Geth The Normandy is attacked and destroyed by an unknown vessel. Commander Cassandra Shepard listed as MIA and then after 6 months killed in action.

I do not own anything except my custom Shep, this is a AU works set in the Mass Effect Universe, i am just playing in Bioware/EA's sandbox.

"Shepard, wake up!"

The female voice cut through the groggy woman's head, like a sledgehammer to be more precise, and when she didn't move straight away the woman's voice, or at least she assumed it was a woman, grew sharper.

Almost like she was back on Titan and under that damn Gunnies command. Cassandra swung herself off the bed and took several deep breaths.

"I need you to get up, get the damn pistol and armour from the locker and move your ass!"

"Will you shut the FUCK UP!" Shepard shouted and, for a few blissful moments there was peace. She winced as she heard the explosions from nearby and opening the locker, she pulled on an armour with the N7 designation insignia, and the colours too. She was impressed, or she would have been, if she knew where she was.

"No ammo? What is the point of picking up a pistol if there is no ammo!"

"Move to the next room Shepard there are ammo clips across the floor."

Was it too much to ask for that woman to be quiet, but she had a feeling that if she wanted to find out what was going on here then, that voice was the one with the answers, so for now, she was playing the game, whatever the game was and it had something to do with that voice.

Shooting her way through a bunch of mechs was nothing new, the only thing that bothered Cassandra about them was, Mechs were not meant to fire back at humans, unless programmed to do so, especially in the line of security work, but these didn't much look like security Mechs to her.

When she ran to the top of the stairs the voice began to break up, something about being in D wing and surrounded by Mechs, it cut dead after that. Cass moved her head from side to side and held a hand to her side. She ached in places she didn't think possible and finally, without that woman barking at her, she was able to finally get her bearings.

She entered the office and looked around her, shot the two crawling Mechs and set her gun on the table. It was a small office, probably used by this building senior people. She perched against a desk and closed her eyes but all she could clearly remember was…her eyes snapped open as the image of Jeff yelling her name and her being flung into space proved too much for her to hold onto.

She was dead, that much she knew, she had been shot into space and her air filter had ruptured, but maybe she wasn't dead, she was standing here in this hellish place firing at Mechanical servants and hearing the screams of the dead and dying all around her. Nothing new there, she grimly thought. Cass saw the holo journal, and turned it on, the face of the voice that had been her companion since she woke up, appeared, looking tired and yet determined.

"Progress is slow, yet subject shows signs of recovery." Cass got up and looked at the files on the shelf as she listened to the attractive woman's voice once more. "Major organs are again functional, and there are signs of rudimentary neurological activity. In order to accelerate the process, we have moved from simple organic reconstruction to bio-synthetic fusion. Initial results show promise."

"Bio what now?" She asked herself and turned to look at the now blank journal. As the Commander stepped back, she knocked a smaller recording and stood listening to the voice, this time a man's voice, her eyes widening as he spoke in terms of sums of money she could not even begin to fathom.

"Log update, the cost of this project is astronomical…over four billion credits so far and yet no one seems bothered that we have gone over budget. I don't know where the boss gets his money and maybe, maybe its better not to know, but I just wish he'd kick a little my way occasionally."

Well, he sounded pissed off about that one. Cass thought as she heaved a sigh and flinched at the explosions that seemed to be drawing nearer. She picked her gun up, and a couple more clips, clips? When did they start using clips? She shook her head free of the thought for now, sucking in a lungful of air that hurt to hell, she made her way through the station.

A pain filled hour of searching brought her to an atrium, the view of space would have been nice, had it not been for the explosions, screams and well seeing bodies being torn to shreds thanks to the massive YMIR Mechs Gatling guns. Someone had even called out her name before he died and she had found another scathing journal by the unknown man, whose voice she vaguely recognised, calling the director of this place an ice queen. Cass rested back against the door frame and checked her ammo. She loaded her pistol only to hear; "Gravities a mean mother ain't it" She peered round the corner to see a tall African American man dressed in black and gold armour with short black hair biotically pull a mech into the air then shoot it.

Finally, another human who wasn't dead. She aimed her pistol and shot another mech, before moving to cover and joining the man. "Shepard!" he exclaimed in surprise "Damn, things must be serious if Miranda's got you up and about,"

"You seem to have me at a disadvantage mister?" Shepard scowled as she saw the gold and white emblem on his armour breast plate and wondered why it would cause a sense of unease and disgust to course through her.

"Names Taylor, Jacob Taylor" Jacob introduced himself, then ducked as a well-aimed shot from the mechs on the other side of the walkway narrowly missed his head. "I ned to get you off here Commander, but first we err..have to deal with these things." Cass peared over the top of the railung and took a shot, then ducked back down again. "What I need to know is were you alone? Was Miranda with you?"

"Who?" Cass asked Watching as once again he pulled a Mech into the air and this time she shot it then fired again getting rid of the other Mechs giving her and Taylor a chance to talk.

"The project director, Miranda Lawson" He explained "Was she with you when you woke up?"

"In a sense" Cass holstered her gun "She was talking to me when I got up, I lost touch with her once I got out the medical wing."

"Damn" Jacobs brow furrowed and his deep brown eyes looked almost sorrowful for a moment, as if he had to deal with maybe loosing his best friend, but, as soon as it was there, it was gone as a reasertive notion replaced his moment of doubt.

"She said she was in D wing and she was surrounded then she just cut off."

"She'll be fine" Although who he was trying to convince Cass couldn't be sure. "We need to get you out of here."

"Just a second Taylor." Cassandra looked around her "I am not moving until someone tells me where the fuck I am! I been ordered around since I woke up and this, this clearly is not an Alliance facility."

Jacob looked around him as if trying to decide if he should say something, but judging by the expression on the Commanders face, either he gave her some information or she was not walking.

"Ok Commander," Jacob sighed heavily "what do you want to know?"

"Where am I would be a good start." Cass folded her arms.

"You are on the Lazarus Research station and you have been for about two and a half years."

"What? Two and a…that's fucking ridiculous!" Cassies eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped in shock.

"No, Commander it isn't. The Normandy exploded in an unknown attack, you and 20 others of the Normandy Crew died. You were dead as dead could be when we found we and brought you here. The docs here brought you back to life."

"So, what am I a clone or cybernetic construct or something?"

"No ma'am aside from some cybernetics to help aid your recovery you are who you are. You were just meat and tubes when we brought you here and it took a lot of patience to bring you back but, here you are." He smiled quickly.

Cassandra looked around her and moved to the seat and sat down. "What about my team, if they knew I was alive they would come straight here to get me."

"I err doubt that Commander, once the Alliance declared you dead, they reassigned the crew and the non humans left. They survived but doing other things or moved on. Sorry Commander they wouldn't know where here was even if they were together."

Cassandra nodded albeit distractedly "Who's in charge around here?"

"That would be Director Lawson, you were her project, her baby and I doubt she would have let anything happen to you. She oversaw your arrival and um, resurrection. Miranda was very, um...well let's just say she had a lot of late nights when we thought we were going to lose you."

"And the attack of the Mechs?"

"Hell, if I know Commander, I was getting ready for some shut eye when Bam, Mechs everywhere started shooting up the place." Jacob ran a weary hand along the back of his neck "Must have been a power glitch or something because they shouldn't be shooting at us!" His face morphed from handsome to a deep scowl "Someone inside this facility re-programmed them, that's the only answer for ... well this" he spread his arms to express his meaning. "I am Miranda's top lieutenant and even I didn't see this coming."

"So, what, you're head of security?"

"Something like that Commander. Have I sated your curiosity for now?"

Cassie looked around and got to her feet. She nodded absently, still trying to absorb the fact she had been dead for two years. "For now, Taylor, yes" She murmured "Which way to those shuttles?"

"This way Commander…"

++Check, check, is there anyone on this channel? Its John Wilson, come on anyone else alive out there? ++

Jacobs eyebrows climbed and he touched his ear radio ++Wilson, that you? It's Jacob, where are you? ++

++Server Room B and I got Mechs everywhere. ++

++Hold on Wilson, I got Commander Shepard with me we'll come get you and get off this station. ii

++Shepard's alive? What the hell…never mind just come find me and fucking hurry Taylor! ++

"Lead on Taylor, this is your station." Cass muttered and giving the atrium a final look around she followed Jacob out through the door.

Miranda Lawson was not one for mistakes, truth be told she could be a little OCD when it came to her work habits. Meticulous in every detail, she had a reputation as being something of an Ice Queen, the truth of the matter was, she was just perfect about how to do her job. For every problem one of her team solved, she found solutions to several more. It had been that way for the last two and a half years since they had recovered Commander Cassandra Shepard's body. Late nights spent pouring over photos and vids of the first Human Spectre, and digging around to make sure the history of the Commander was right. She did not however plan for something like this.

Now with the fused and smouldering Mechs around her, Miranda began to look back through the system, trying to pinpoint where the re-programme took place, and, more importantly; who did it. The why would come later when the boss would look deeper into the traitor's accounts but for now, she just needed to find who…. Miranda paused as she looked over video footage from eight hours previous. Her grey blue eyes narrowed into slits as she got the answer she was looking for. "Sonofabitch" She murmured to herself. Well she had to leave but not before she sent the proof to her boss. He didn't need to tell her what to do, she would just do it. That bastard would pay for what he did to her people. They did not deserve to die, not like that and not at the hands of someone that they had trusted.

Miranda moved out of the wing she had been trapped in and flung several warp fields one after the other hitting them with a shockwave and sending Mechs either exploding or crumbling into nothing by molten slag. Unholstering her pistol she moved her dark brown locks behind her ear and readied her pistol. With a determined gait to her stride she made her way to the waiting shuttles, and her prey.

"Physical reconstruction of subject is complete, but we still have to evaluate all physical and neurological functions. Our orders were clear, bring Commander Shepard back the way she was, with the same morals, same mind and same personality before the explosion. If we alter her identity in any way, if she is not the same Commander Shepard who defeated Saren and his Geth and helped destroy the Reaper Sovereign, then the Lazarus Project would have failed,"

Jacob watched the Commander absorb this journal and stood beside her as Miranda's journal finished. "You really are the same person Commander" he quietly affirmed.

"You think so?" She asked absently.

"What's the last thing you remember Commander?" Jacob pushed slightly.

"Playing football with my dad and my twin brother." Cassie remarked causing Jacobs eyes to widen, the panic rising in him as he thought for one moment the project had spectacularly failed. "I was playing in a place that was peaceful, no war, no council arguing every point I made, no councillor stabbing me in the back. Then I get brought back here." Shepard focused her dark green eyes on the Lieutenant, "That's the last thing I remember. How far are we from this Wilson?"

"Just around the corner Commander." Jacob stepped to one side to let her go first.

Her words hung in his mind. They were supposed to bring the Commander back the way she was, and his mother had been a religious woman, church every Sunday, that there would be a life after death, had they brought the Commander back from that life of peace and tranquillity to this…well less than paradise world? That would explain how she looked uncomfortable in her own skin.

They found Wilson where he said he would be, but Jacob had explained to her on the long walk to Sever Room B, that Wilson was a bio-med officer, he was a doctor and it was strange how he would be in the server room. Whilst Jacob tended to Wilsons wounds Cassie looked around her. There were some bodies in that same uniform with the disconcerting symbol that made her skin crawl. She looked at the Mechs, then back at the dead half dozen humans. They were not shot in the front, not how she would have expected had the mechs, from the position of their smouldering parts, been coming at them from the front. No, they had been shot, in the back. From someone they were not expecting. She looked back at Wilson as Jacob helped him to his feet.

"I remember a Wilson once time, when I woke up, you were arguing the toss with Lawson, saying I was dead and that I should be spaced."

"Well, glad to see I was wrong." Wilson joked as he limped around a bit before the medi-gel did its thing. "Didn't think I would end up being saved by the mighty Commander Shepard" He grinned at her, "guess that makes us even."

"Not even close." Cass glanced around her again as the mechs came back for more. She watched as Wilson overloaded the barrels of explosives and followed the cremating metal body parts as they came down to earth.

"I came here to see if I could stop this, but the damn Mechs swarmed all over the place." Wilson motioned to his dead comrades.

"I didn't ask what you were doing." Jacob scowled "and come to think of it, why are you even in here? You work in Bio Wing; you shouldn't even be in here."

"Didn't you hear what I just said, I came to help. Look we need to get out of here."

"No!" Jacob raised his finger "We need to find Miranda first."

"Oh, come on, she was in D Wing, the mechs were swarming all over the place, there is no way she would have escaped."

"Wilson you know as well as I that a buncha Mechs won't drop Miranda" Jacob forcefully said as Shepard kicked some of the body parts out of the way.

"Ok well why isn't she here then, huh? She's either dead or she started the whole process"

"No way!" Jacob glared "This was her project no way would she ever do something like that! Your head must have taken a knock to it if you even think that after all this time."

"Shepard what do you think?" Wilson deferred to the Commander.

"Why would she wake me up just to have me killed, if she wanted to do that, she could have left me asleep." Cassie folded her arms "But then I don't know any of you so whom am I to say who is a traitor or not" She stood straighter "Once you two have done with your little pissing contest can we move to get off this damn slaughter house?"

Jacob moved his gaze from the Commander to Wilson and back again, the Commander had a glint in her eye that he couldn't quite explain it was as if she knew something, but wasn't going to say anything about what that might be. Wilson however looked pleased that the Commander wanted to get off the station and was happy enough to have him at her back, too happy come to think of it.

"Shepard look, this is getting way above intense, if I tell you who we work for, who it was that brought you back from the dead, will you trust me?"

"Jacob" Wilson warned "This is not the time or the place,"

"The Commander deserves to know the truth and waiting for a shot in the back is not going to help."

"You wanna piss off the boss its your call, don't drag me down into it." Wilson folded his arms.

"Shepard, Commander, the Lazarus Project, it's a Cerberus run organisation."

Cassie stopped dead in her tracks. That was why the insignia on his armour unsettled her, that was why she was edgy all around this place. She snarled and without warning she punched Jacob clear across the room.

"What did you want me to do Taylor, shake your hand and say thank you!" She snarled.

"I thought you deserved to know the truth Shepard; the Illusive Man can fill you in."

"If you think I am going to work for the Bastards that killed my brother and his unit and my unit on Acuze, you can think again." She looked him over "I'll get you off your damn station then, I am going back to the Alliance!"

"The Alliance thinks you are dead Shepard." Jacob got to his feet rubbing his jaw "They left you for dead, Cerberus brought you back, with the help of Liara that is."

Shepard stepped up again this time the gun under his jaw, she let a growl go from the back of her throat and for the briefest of moments it looked like she might actually shoot him, instead she shoved both him and Wilson in front of her "Keep fucking walking."

Liara? Why would Liara do such a thing, he had to be lying, he had to be, there was no way Liara would help Cerberus, not after all they had done.

"Test subject has been recovered, but the damage is far worse than we initially feared. In addition to the expected burns and internal injuries from the explosion, the subject has suffered signifigant cellular breakdown due to long term exposure to vacuum and sub-zero temperatures. Despite the extent of the physical trauma, Wilson assures me the subject is salvageable. The Lazarus Project will proceed as planned."

Cassie turned the journal off and followed both Wilson and Jacob to the far doors. "Ok just let me get this door and we'll get you off here Shepard." Wilson imputed a code on the locked doors which opened to reveal the angry features of…. "Miranda! But you're…."

"Dead?" Miranda snarled coldly before shooting Wilson at point blank range "hardly, but you are now."

Cassie turned her head as blood spilled everywhere turning the sterile white to bright red.

"Miranda what the hell have you done!" Jacob ran up to her staring at Wilsons body "he was one of ours, we've known him for years!"

"He was responsible for the mechs acting the way they did, he was the reason everyone aboard this station is now dead." Miranda holstered her gun.

"You sure I mean you could have it wrong…"

"I am never wrong Jacob; you should know that by now."

"The people in that Server Room were shot in the back." Cass lowered her gun "Only he could have done that. The mechs didn't they had been shooting from the front."

"Good instincts Commander, come on let's get you off here, my boss will want to talk to you."

"Yeah and I have a few questions for your Illusive man aswell." Cassie remarked "You and bloody Cerberus."

Miranda heaved a heavy sigh and looked pointedly at Jacob. "Ahh Jacob, I should have realised your conscience would get the better of you."

"If we carried on lying to the Commander, we wouldn't be able to get her to join our cause Miri." Jacob didn't flinch under Miranda's hard stare.

"Anything else you want to know before we leave Commander?" Miranda asked her gaze not leaving Jacobs face for a moment.

"Anyone else alive?"

"Nope we are the only ones left, if there were any left alive then they would be here by now."

"But there could be."

"There isn't but by all means, if you want to remain here with the Mechs swarming and then get caught in another explosion when we detonate the place, be my guest." Miranda finally shifted her gaze to the Commanders and held it, as sternly as Cassie held hers.

Cassandra shook her head and, as much as she disliked the notion, this woman was right. She cocked her head a little, dark brown hair framed a face that was too severe to be anything but warm and welcoming. Her bedside manner leaved a lot to be desired too. The woman before her looked perfect, no noticeable flaws, too perfect. "I've had enough of this station to last me a lifetime." She finally said.

"Or in your case, two" Miranda added with the barest hint of a smile and without looking back, expecting them to follow her, she got into the waiting shuttle, programmed it with a predetermined course and sat in her seat.

Miranda waited until Jacob and Shepard were in their seats, it would be several hours before they even reached their base. In her own mind she had to be certain that the Commander was the same, exactly the same She took a datapad from her jacket and looked up to see Shepard with her head against the window seemingly staring out the window and into the void, as if the billions upon trillions of stars could answer her unvoiced thoughts.

"I think I need to make sure that your memories are in tact Commander." She announced without any preamble.

"Oh come on Miri," Jacob scowled "the Commander is who she is, I can vouch for her combat skills personally."

"We still have to make sure." Miranda asserted, "Or else the Illusive Man will not be convinced."

"Fire your damn questions" Cassie wearily replied, she hurt and every nerve in her body was screaming at her, the last time she had felt like this was when she had crawled out of the mess that was Acuze.

"You were born a spacer, your family moving from one place to another, but how did you meet Jeff Moreau, the famous Joker of the Alliance?" Miranda asked.

"Our mothers were friends." Shepard sighed and closed her eyes a little "We met on Arcturus Station and were friends ever since."

"Ok, you lost your entire squad except one, on Acuze, who did you meet and how did you find them?" Jacob asked.

"Corporal Toombs, Andreas had survived the Thresher Maw attack, I ran into him on a isolated world in the Terminus systems where he told me what had happened to him." Cassie raised her head "Cerberus scientists had experiments on him, to see how Thresher Maw blood affected the human body."

"Corporal Toombs was released from service and recently was declared fit after what Alliance officials claimed was a mental breakdown." Jacob deliberately left out any mention of Cerberus. His throbbing jaw not wanting another connection with the Commanders fist. "Satisfied Miri?"

"Nope, Commander on Virmire you left Kaidan Alenko to die,"

"No, I didn't" Cassie shifted in her seat "Alenko set himself up on a suicide run, I sent my team in to get Ashley Williams and the Salarians while I got Alenko. I kicked him off my ship when we returned to the Citadel, Virmire still went up in a haze of nuclear fire though."

"Yes, Lieutenant Alenko is now Commander Alenko although where he is no one knows." Miranda nodded. "Something more recent?"

"Commander, after you defeated Sovereign and saved the council, you were asked to choose humanities representative on the council, who did you choose?" Jacob asked.

"I chose Captain Anderson. Udina had already shown his true colours when he backslid on my entire mission to worm his way into and onto the council."

"Yes" Miri smiled quickly "Councillor Anderson is Humanities voice on the Council although I believe he rather wishes he wasn't"

"Can't say I blame him" Jacob muttered "he was stabbed in the back like Shepard was." Jacob got up and fixed three coffees and handed Miranda one one for himself and one for Cassie.

"What do you mean?"

"After you died," Miranda sipped her coffee pulling a face, she preferred tea but well, this would have to do, "and once the Council got their collective heads out of their arses, they started to say that your words and visions were the actions of a delusional mind, stressed by the yearlong hunt for Saren and his Geth." A raised eyebrow was all that Cassie gave her "Only Councillor Teevos backed Councillor Anderson but she even she admitted she had her scepticism about Sovereign being anything more than a Geth Dreadnought." She put her data pad away "Well, your memory seems solid Shepard, we had better hope that this little field test is enough for the Illusive Man."

Cassie sipped her coffee, the taste harsh to her throat but it took away the dryness, even if she felt a little sick after the first couple of sips. She would have questions of her own for this Illusive Man, her memory was solid and she was not about to forget everything that Cerberus had done. Not just to her or her family, but Admiral Kahuku and his men, Andreas Toombs and anyone else that crossed their paths.


End file.
